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Director, MESH project, Mapping Edinburgh's Social History

Biography

Richard Rodger is Professor of Economic and Social History at Edinburgh University. He has published widely on the economic, business and urban history of Britain since 1800. His book The Transformation of Edinburgh: Land, Property and Trust in the Nineteenth Century was awarded the Frank Watson Prize for works on Scottish history. Ongoing research involves projects on the development of public health in Victorian Scotland, and a study of Edinburgh trusts as part of a comparative analysis of legal and institutional factors affecting the trajectory of urban development. This research strand began while undertaking MA and PhD degrees in Economics and Economic History at Edinburgh, and continued during appointments at Liverpool, Kansas and Leicester Universities, where Rodger was until recently Professor of Urban History and Director of the East Midlands Oral History Archive. As author and editor, Rodger has published 16 books, and over 100 articles and chapters; he was General Editor for a series of 40 books under the title of Historical Urban Studies, and was Editor of Urban History, published by Cambridge University Press, between 1987 and 2007. Since 2000 he has raised over €1 million in research grants. In recognition of his numerous publications, and contributions to the study of economic and social history, Rodger was elected to the Academy of Social Sciences in 2004.

External appointments

• Editor, 19987-2007 - Urban History (published by Cambridge University Press) See -
• General Series Editor 1990-2010;  Historical Urban Studies, Ashgate Publishing. 40 books – see
• Software Made Simple 1990-2011: partner in  a small business producing documentation for students and universities.
• Consultancy 2007 : Leicestershire County Council, Environment and Heritage Department, Oral History: the Way Forward  (2007)  
• Exhibition: 1999-2000; Edinburgh’s “Colonies”: Housing the People 1860-2000 in the City Arts Centre, Edinburgh  (For Edinburgh City Council in association with the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments in Scotland)
• Conference Organiser 1992-2007 (Urban History Group annual conference)
• AHRC and ESRC panel member
• BBC Radio 4, "Mapping the City" (July 2000) and various other radio, TV and newspapers contributions.
• Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, Good Practice Guide on Improving Housing Design (DETR 2001); historicaol contribution to Report.

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